PATIO: Jim Swayzee & Annie Myers
ALL AGES LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEJIM SWAYZEEJim Swayzee moved to Asheville in 2016 and has been performing in the WNC area ever since then. He writes melody-driven original folk rock songs and draws his influence from classic rock songwriters such as Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and even Tom Waits. ANNIE MYERS Annie Myers is a singer/songwriter with roots in folk country and classic americana music. Influenced by musical pillars such as Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, and John Prine, Annie’s music reflects her love of storytelling through song. Annie moved to Asheville via Philadelphia in 2012 and has been performing solo, as well as alongside Erin Kinard in folk rock duo “Rooster” ever since.
PATIO: The Lads
ALL AGES LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVETHE LADSClassic rock and blues. They call it classic for good reason. The Lads will make you want to dance, sing along, or both. Get classic with The Lads avl.
PATIO: Keturah Allgood
ALL AGES LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEKETURAH ALLGOODNamed as one of the “Fifteen Best New Artists Of 2023” American Songwriter. The Soulful Americana Troubadour, Keturah Allgood is currently bookingshows for 2024. Her latest album “Shine” was released this past August to the delight of her fans who have been waiting several years for a new record and the press who had this to say: “Keturah Allgood’s album Shine is a horse pill of optimism against chaos and despair.” Rachel Cholst – Rainbow Rodeo “Allgood’s voice is honeyed, allowing her to dig in her teeth and deliver rich emotion. She bares her heart and soul, even if her scars still throb sore and red.” Bee Deloras – B-sides and Badlands “Thank God” we have artists like Keturah with the boldness to open our senses eyes to our deeper, higher natures so that we may, as she sings in another emotional centerpiece, the acoustic blues-driven anthem “Love, “Baby, it’s love that can show us a better way. . .Let it burn through the night/Lead us to a brighter day.” Jonathan Widran – The JW Vibe Keturah and her band have played many shows and festivals throughout the 20 plus years that she has been performing, including, The Grey Eagle, The Bluebird, 3rd & Lindsley, The Orange Peel, Sisters On Stage Festival, The Handlebar, Green River Festival, Apple Valley Festival and Preservation Pub to name a few. Born and raised in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Keturah Allgood is a soulful Americana, queer artist who draws on her myriad of life experiences for inspiration. While traversing the dusty back roads and often forgotten places, she gently taps into the heart and soul of our shared existence, believing that music has the power to bring us together, reminding us that love, kindness and compassion always shine through the darkness of these often-trying times.“I love to express the importance of kindness and compassion,” the Brevard, North Carolina native says. “I feel like it is insanely important, especially in today’s toxic and divisive climate, to promote as much love as you can.”
PATIO: Wyatt Espalin
ALL AGES LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEWYATT ESPALINIn 2022, Wyatt Espalin shakes things up with his new band the Riverstones and a collection of songs that invites his fans to examine his songwriting through a different lens. After returning to his roots to live at the rustic campground where he was raised by his grandparents in the North Georgia Mountains, he found a setting that would inspire “DIAMONDBACK”, a collection of mysterious songs released in 2020 that gave his audience a bird’s eye view of an artist rediscovering himself. Well, this fiddler/singer and champion clogger has discovered more and before the Year of the Rabbit, all may be revealed. Let the enlightenment begin! After releasing Songwriter/Singer” in 2015, Wyatt went on to win the 1st Annual New Song Songwriting Contest at North Carolina’s popular L.E.A.F. festival. He has also spent the last few years sharing the stage opening for some of his songwriting idols Indigo Girls, Jennifer Knapp, Kevn Kinney, Chely Wright, Michelle Malone, Shawn Mullins, Patty Loveless, to name a few. During his performances, the haunting, intimate songs juxtaposed with the hilarious stories that he sharesin the banter between them create a beautiful tension.
PATIO: Beth Snapp
ALL AGES LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEBETH SNAPP The pandemic turned the entire musical community upside down, and Northeast Tennessee’s Beth Snapp had a story no different… for the most part. 2019 saw her participating in various Folk and Americana festivals and songwriting competitions (including Kerrville’s New Folk Competition, LEAF’s New Song Music, Songwriter Serenade Winner, TN Dept of Tourism’s Songwriter’s Week Winner). She had enjoyed a Folk Alliance Chart top 10 spot from her 2018 EP “Don’t Apologize.” Press and accolades were building. Then, cue 2020. While lucky to cling to a day job as a healthcare worker in Northeast TN, Beth soon found herself working in the throes of her local COVID unit. This, she reports, took her song away for a while. Some asked if it gave her songwriting fodder. Instead, there were no words, or music, for months. Some moments are too much for words. As the pandemic halt began to fade and music began to return, Beth emerged with a new sense of purpose and re-evaluated goals, highlighting both the messages she wanted to convey, and the human she wanted to be. Beth is finishing up her full-length project with Barry Bales at the production helm (Alison Krauss and Union Station, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, cowriter with Chris Stapleton, Grammy/IBMA/CMA Song of the Year winner). In the meantime, be on the lookout for upcoming singles and collaborations throughout the year. You can also hear Beth’s guest vocal spots with bluegrass super group Blue Highway, Grammy and IBMA winner Tim Stafford, Grammy nominated cellist Dave Eggar, and ‘The Voice’ Contestant Carson Peters.
John Craigie
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYJOHN CRAIGIE Much like community, music nourishes us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It also invites us to come together under the same roof and in a shared moment. In similar fashion, John Craigie rallies a closeness around music anchored by his expressive and stirring songcraft, emotionally charged vocals, lively soundscapes, and uncontainable spirit. The Portland, OR-based singer, songwriter, and producer invites everyone into this space on his 2024 full-length album, Pagan Church. Following tens of millions of streams, sold out shows everywhere, and praise from Rolling Stone and more, he continues to captivate. “The music is always evolving and devolving with each new record,” he observes. “With my last album Mermaid Salt, I really wanted to explore the sound of isolation and solitude as everyone was heading inside. With this record, I wanted to record the sound of everyone coming back out.” In order to capture that, he didn’t go about it alone… Instead, he joined forces with some local friends. At the time, TK & The Holy Know-Nothings booked a slew of outdoor gigs in Portland and they invited Craigie to sit in for a handful of shows. The musicians instinctively identified an unspoken, yet seamless chemistry with each other. Joined by three of the five members, Craigie cut “Laurie Rolled Me a J” and kickstarted the process. With the full band in tow, they hunkered down in an old schoolhouse TK & The Holy Know-Nothings had converted into a de facto headquarters and studio, and recorded the eleven tracks on Pagan Church.TAYLOR KINGMAN In a time drenched in escapism, where an unceasing barrage of synthetic shine promises comfort and relief from facing the complexity of our natures, Taylor Kingman’s new album Hollow Sound is an antithetical long night in a solitary cave, with nothing but a small fire and a hard look inward to keep you company. Between his work fronting TK & The Holy Know-Nothings and his 2017 solo debut Wannabe, Kingman is no stranger to the darkness. But here he transcends the desolate rock bottom, as Hollow Sound whispers, then howls us into that place beyond brokenness where breathing begins again. To listen deeply to these songs is to lay down naked on the wet, unforgiving earth, pushing the ground through your fingers; it is to be soothed by the wholeness of who we are, filth and all. Kingman pulls no punches with his writing, and requires us to listen with the same honesty.
Jon McLaughlin: Coast to Coast Tour
ALL AGES SEATED SHOWLIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEJON McLAUGHLIN Everything in Jon McLaughlin’s life makes its way into his music, whether he’s conscious of it or not. The artist, raised in Indiana and based in Nashville, brings all of his experiences and beliefs into each song he creates, something that is especially true now that he’s the father of two young girls. Jon released his debut album, Indiana, in 2007 on Island Def Jam, attracting fans with his heartfelt, hook-laden songwriting and impassioned delivery. He’s released six full-lengths in the years since and revealed a true evolution in both his piano playing and singing. He’s played shows with Billy Joel, Kelly Clarkson and Adele, collaborated with longtime friend Sara Bareilles, co-written with Demi Lovato and even performed at the Academy Awards in 2008. Jon’s album, Like Us, dropped in October of 2015 via Razor & Tie, and he spent the past few years touring extensively before heading back into his Nashville studio to work on new music. Jon released a Christmas EP in 2017 titled Red & Green with two originals and his take on a few holiday classics. In November of 2018 Jon released his album Angst & Grace which features “Still My Girl” written for his youngest daughter. In the fall of 2022 Jon hit the road with his band in celebration of the 15 year anniversary of his Indiana album which will be remastered and re released on vinyl spotlighting a new acapella version of the title track “Indiana” featuring Straight No Chaser as well as never-before-released b-sides. As with everything he does, Jon’s goal is to create connections. He wants to translate his experiences and ideas into music that reaches fans everywhere. His passion for music and playing is evident in each note he plays. LEO SAWIKINLeo Sawikin is a NYC-born and bred singer/songwriter, who debuted as a solo recording artist with his 2021 album, Row Me Away. While Leo often records from his home studio in New York’s Little Italy, over the last year he traveled to Seattle to work with the legendary Phil Ek, who produced breakthrough albums by Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, The Shins, and Fleet Foxes.
An Evening With Chris Smither
ALL AGESSEATED SHOWLIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLECHRIS SMITHERThe sound and imagery of the 20th release by Chris Smither, All About the Bones, (release date: May 3, 2024 on Signature Sounds/Mighty Albert, distributed by Redeye) is as elemental as the inky black shadows cast by a shockingly bright moon. The listener is welcomed into some gothic mansion on an imaginary New Orleans street, and there in the lamplit parlor confronts the band, a minimalist skeleton crew: Smither’s inimitable propulsive guitar and rumbling baritone are joined seamlessly to producer David Goodrich’s carpetbag of instruments, Zak Trojano’s rock-steady, primal drumming, BettySoo’s diaphanous harmony vocals, and the flat, mournful flood of Jazz legend Chris Cheek’s saxophone. Recorded at Sonelab Studios in Easthampton MA by Justin Pizzoferrato (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., the Hold Steady) All About the Bones has a feel that is somehow baroque and austere at once. Smither and his longtime producer David Goodrich have been refining their musical conversation for decades, both in the studio and onstage, and by now, their bond verges on the telepathic. Goodrich plays on nearly every track. His sound is by now so translucent that it seems to function as a swath of silence, allowing the songs to burn like ciphers in the crackling air. And oh, the songs on All About the Bones. Chris Smither, after six decades of sharpening his knife as a songwriter, can at this point open damn near anything with a flick of his wrist. God and the Devil are opened here. Mortality is too. Politics, consciousness, renewal, family, vulnerability, surrender… Smither has sat with these topics like so many Zen koans, for so long, that every line is a pearl. The title track, “All About the Bones,” kicks the record off with “Consider your high station/ think about your fame. All of your creation depended on your frame.” Irony, wit, the double meaning of “depended”… each verse is a master class in songwriting. Yet the stark, elemental sage always has a twinkle in his eye, a light touch at your elbow as he guides you along. From the wickedly funny defense of the Adversary in “If Not for the Devil” to the unsentimental open-heartedness of “Still Believe in You,” he is as human as we all long to be. The disjointed imagery of “In the Bardo” and the dystopian mirror of “Close the Deal” find Smither unflinchingly staring down the mortality of both individuals and republics, and yet he is at peace, among loved ones in his cover of Eliza Gilkyson’s “Calm Before the Storm,” and turning his gaze to the future in “Completion”. He sends us on our merry way, startled, dazzled, unsettled and then comforted, with Tom Petty’s “Time to Move On.”
An Evening With Jonathan Coulton
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEJONATHAN COULTONJonathan Coulton is known for his eclectic catalog of masterful songwriting on subjects from zombies and mad scientists to sad parents and dissatisfied software engineers. He’s written songs for The Good Fight and Braindead TV series, as well as the Portal video games, and Spongebob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical. He was the house musician for the NPR show Ask Me Another and is the host and namesake of an annual floating nerd convention called JoCo Cruise.
Kim Smith
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE KIM SMITH Kim Smith is a singer-songwriter/collaborator based out of Asheville, North Carolina. “Songwriting is not just a passion it’s the expression of my soul in the most vulnerable and strongest times.” Kim continues to record and release songs produced by Asheville-based Chris Rosser as well as Nashville-based Dean Miller. Her first album “Thorns and Whiskey” was released Spring of 2023. Kim continues to record her music in the studio and travels around sharing her message in her music.
